Sam glanced down at the form in her hand, noticing it only had space for one beast's name. "One?" she muttered. She turned on her heel and headed back to the counter, waving the paper like evidence.
"I'm going to need three more copies of this," she said.
Dorron looked up, brow furrowing. He shook his head with the weariness of a man who had seen too much nonsense already today. "Of course—three more forms. Why wouldn't a level-one Beast Tamer have four tames already?" he grumbled, pulling the papers from a stack.
Sam shrugged, snatching them from his hand. "Maybe it's a Purple thing," she murmured, and returned to the central tables to fill them out.
The Beast Tamer booth sat alone on one side of the hall, cordoned off by a parking-space's worth of empty floor between it and the other profession counters. The line there was short; the process was simple. Hand over your form, the clerk would point to the marked square, and your beast would appear seconds later.
When it was her turn, Sam slid her four forms across the counter.
"Four? At your age? Impressive," the clerk said, looking her over.
"They'll be out for a few minutes," Sam told her tames mentally.
Sunblaze went first—stepping into reality with a shimmer of light that made onlookers gasp. The mare lifted her head, mane tossing as though on parade. Next came Tempy, lightning crawling lazily over her fur, the scent of ozone curling in the air. Iggy followed, her black fur flaring just slightly with fire at her paws—a flash, then gone.
"They can be a little dramatic at times," Sam said with a helpless shake of her head.
Finally, Syn appeared, massive and unhurried, claiming the space with a single sweep of her gaze.
The clerk recorded the details, then glanced at Sam. "Are you still using your AI?"
Sam blinked. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I?"
{"Want me to answer that for you?"} Jarvis's voice murmured in her mind.
"Sure," she thought back.
The clerk leaned in slightly, lowering her voice. "Most people stop after the Academy. They're told it becomes a crutch over time instead of an assistant. Makes people lazy, apparently."
{"Which is absurd,"} Jarvis said dryly. {"Statistically, performance drops an average of thirty-two percent when AIs are abandoned. A well-used assistant multiplies efficiency—it doesn't erode it."}
Sam smiled faintly. "Seems to me a good assistant just makes you better at what you already do."
The clerk smirked. "Exactly. But you didn't hear it from me."
With the beast registration complete, Sam moved to the business counter. Jarvis fed her the correct address as she filled in the forms.
"Do I need to come back to fix the earlier paperwork? I left this part blank," she asked.
"No problem," the clerk said, making a quick notation. "We'll update your personal file here."
Sam nodded, another quiet piece falling into place. It wasn't just bad habit—this discouraging of AI use. It was deliberate. One more way for the people in charge to keep their citizens a little slower, a little blinder. A few minutes later the clerk slid four ID tags across there counter. Sam scooped them up putting them into her inventory and then bid the woman farewell. On to yet another queue. This time for business. Registering her business didn't take long. Now that she was registered the clerk only needed to look up her name. A quick filling out of yet another form and a signature, and she was done. Finally.
Stepping out into the fresh air again, only this time with proper ID for her and her tames, she had made her first step towards securing herself some ongoing funds. Releasing everyone from their beast space, she attached the new ID tags and made her way back into the lower parts of the city. Now was a good a time as any to check out the market. Along with registering her business, she also applied for a stall permit in the main marketplace. So she led Sunblaze and the rest to check it out.
When she got to the market she sent Sunblaze to her beast space, she was simply too large to weave their way through the crowd. With their new tags, the others were looked upon with curiosity. She used her newest skills to turn Iggy into a more comfortable size to carry. The now kitten sized cat lounged on shoulder, claws subtly digging into the leather of her armor. She found her assigned spot and visually measured it. It would do for now. She had Jarvis mark it on her map so she could easily find it again and then went from stall to stall checking out prices and doing a little shopping. She found an ore seller with acceptable prices and pitched some and order more to be delivered to her new address. She then wandered about from one stall to the next picking materials that held interesting properties for her to use in her creation's. As the sun began to set she made her way back to the inn. She greeted Mary and Red and ate in the main room engaging in idle conversation. When she got back to her room she fed her tames and then went to bed.
After waking up and taking care of her and her tames needs, Sam said goodbye to the Thornes and thanked them for their help. She promised to stop by for dinner now and then and tell them all about her adventures in the future.
She met Ceisel in front of the registration office. After a few minutes waiting in yet another line, and an exchange of keys and coin, everything was settled. Sam had a new home and Ceisel had enough money to be able to help out his daughter. They said their goodbyes and Sam and the gang made their way to their new home.
{Ding! Quest Complete! Home Is Where The Heart Is.
Reward: +400xp
Reward: One (1) Queen Sized Bed, One (1) set of Bed linens, Four (4) Pillows, Five (5)
Piece Living Room Set (Couch, Rug, Coffee Table, Two (2) Chairs), Dining Table Set w/ Four (4) Chairs.}
As soon as Sam steps past through the gate and on to her new property the S.I.S.T.E.M. Notification rings. Sam smiled in delight. Climbing down from Sunblaze she removes her saddle and bridle.
"What would you like to do?" She says to the horse. "Go to your beast space? Or the stable? I can't imagine standing in a stable is much fun. I'll just be cleaning and organizing things. I doubt I'll be going anywhere. It's kind of like a paddock, only bigger I suppose." She smiles at Sunblaze, patting her flank.
'My beast space. If you please.' Sunblaze says to her. Sam activates the beast space and Sunblaze disappears into a ray of sunshine that hits Sam in the chest.
"Alright, anyone else?" Sam asks the rest. Syn agrees, simply to investigate her space more, while the cats chose to investigate their new home. Making her way to the front door of the house, she unlocks the door and heads straight to the incubator. It was sitting on the counter between the sink and the stove. Nothing changed, in perfect shape. She knew Ceisel wouldn't have done anything to it in purpose, but she wanted to make sure a switch wasn't accidentally turned. Everything was just as she left it. The outside radiated a gently warmth and when she inspected it nothing had really changed much.
Standing in the middle of the kitchen, she looks around. Like Ceisel had said, except for some knickknacks, herbs, and the teapot missing, everything was still there. The kitchen was missing a table. She guessed he ate all his meals in the dining room section of the living space. She brought out the table that had appeared in her inventory. It was a little plain compared to Ceisel's work, but it fit the space perfectly. She pushed it into the corner arranged two of the chairs on the open sides. She wasn't sure who would sit in the second chair, with only her here. Maybe she'll make a friend, she wasn't quite sure yet.
She made her way upstairs and switched out Ceisel's old bed for her new one. She made the bed and made her way downstairs and out to the cart to start transferring her things. After putting everything in its new place, and switching the old living room set for her new one, her inventory was left with only the furniture, resources, her workstation, and loot. Entering the workshop she noticed a few resources missing but soon filled the spots with her own. She set her worktable where Ceisel's had been. Then walked over to an empty corner and arranged a small break room of sorts. More of a break corner, but if she was tired while working, it would do for a nap.
I'm amongst the items left behind, she found a simple wooden chest with no lock. She figured why make something if she already had one, so she brought it over to the couch and placed it on the coffee table. She pulled the bag of rings and pendants from her inventory and opened it. There were numerous wood, copper, brass, and ironstone rings with almost a dozen pendants. Looking at them all she sighed.
"Jarvis, you kept track of what's in here right?" Sam hoped.
{"Of course, Sam. Would you like that loot list now?"}
"Please, I didn't realize there would be so many. Could you include what Tempy and I were wearing too."
{"Coming right up"}
{Loot Report:
Rings: 26
Ring of Strength
Ring of Elements Resistance x3
Ring of Light x2
Ring of Smoke
Ring of Undying Flame
Ring of Healing
Ring of Speed
Ring of Invisibility
Ring of Protection
Ring of the Hunt x3
Ring of Protection x2
Ring of Illusion x3
Ring of Vitality
Ring of Reflection
Ring of Darkness
Ring of Swiftness
Ring of Firewalking
Ring of Storms
Pendants: 9
Pendant of Precision
Pendant of Beasts
Pendant of Poison Resistance x3
Pendant of Life
Pendant of The Wanderer
Pendant of The Tracker x2}
Whistling at the amount of items Sam sat back and thought about how to proceed. Obviously she'd sell the duplicate items. Along with the ones she noticed were weaker versions of other ones. For example rings in the same category (Elemental in this case) tended to negate the others purpose rather than enhance it. The ring of Undying Flame gave it's wearer immunity to fire and heat damage below 100 DPS, where as the Ring of Firewalking only grants a resistance to fire below 50 DPS. She obviously didn't need both. As immunity rings out classes resistance rings.
The same wasn't true for the rings of Healing and Vitality and the pendant of Life. All classified as Health Enchantments, Life gave an extra 10% boost to your health points, while Vitality healed health over time and Healing simply healed minor wounds. Obviously all could be used because while they did different things. Healing was instantaneous, Life was percentage boost and Vitality was continuous over time, healing all wounds eventually, if you had enough mana to supply the heavy 100Mp per day cost. Putting that aside for now, she left the pendants and rings in the box and made her way to her workbench. On the Mana-pad was a notification.
{S.I.S.T.E.M. has detected that your workbench has been placed within an area containing access to a wearhouse. Would you like Sync to allow workbench access to wearhouse stock? Y/N}
Sam tapped the yes button and her list of available items increased. Delighted at all the new things, Sam noticed an increase in cloth items that required cloth scraps. She hadn't been able to make those items since she didn't really have anything to turn into cloth scraps. Noticing a drop down menu beside sync she tapped it and down came a list of all available resources. While mostly wood since Ceisel was a carpenter, there were also a large assortment of crap cloth, nails, screws, latches, hinges, common raw ores and other items needed for a carpenter to build various items. There were even some varnishes and paints that would enhance the items quality and function. They weren't very high quality themselves, since Ceisel took the best ones, but for her use they still provided an extra boost that would allow for higher profit.
Rubbing her hands together she got to work. First she scrolled through the available items, then she looked at the resources she'd need to make using Material Manipulation. Before making anything to sell she decided to make herself a pencil and note book. While she probably could have just asked jarvis to remember things for her, she preferred to have a tangible copy of what she wanted. The notebook was incredibly easy, it was essentially just various forms of wood tied together with plant fibers she made into twine. It was rustic with a hard wooden cover that would make writing in it easier without the need of a table. The pencil was simply charcoal wrapped in wood. Using a knife to sharpen the end. She wrote down the resources she would need to gather. She'd gather them when she went out tomorrow to hunt. Maybe even look for some new things.